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Topic Review (Newest First)

06-09-2012 03:05 AM

airbagged

I am currently using the aquaray grobeam 1000 on a 180 gallon planted they are amazing and the growth is insane!! they work excellent i was hesitant myself to put out the $1500 for 4 units and a controller but it was worth it!! check out my pic and see my setup. I also use Panorama freshwater leds as a secondary lighting system but the grobeams are fine without it. they are dim by contrast

11-23-2011 09:35 PM

Hoppy

1000 lumens produce 1000 lux at one meter distance. Multiply lux by .014 to get approximate PAR for cool white fluorescent light (close enough to LED light). So, that 1000 lumen LED bulb should produce 14 micromols of PAR at one meter distance, but that is assuming the bulb emits light through a full spherical angle around the bulb. It doesn't. The light is concentrated into about a 60 degree cone, which is about 1/36 of a full sphere (I think). Therefore the PAR should be about 36 times higher or 36 x 14 = 500 micromols of PAR at a one meter distance. If all of that is calculated correctly, you should get an awful lot of light from one bulb. (At 20 inches, it would be 4X 500!)

11-23-2011 05:08 PM

el_heb

Right now i just saw a new ecoxotic panorama module on their site, it says panorama freshwater kit, it looks like the older model, with 1w per led

I don't think you could use the shade. The bottom of the goose neck is 52" off the floor. The PAR 38's are 5" long. so the bottom of the bulb would be 47" off the floor. So for a 30" tall stand with a 16" high tank you are only 1" off the surface of the water. To use this light you would have to:

>>Easy way>> set the light on a 2' high box behind the aquarium
>>Harder way>> remove the base and attach the light pole to the aquarium stand.

Where are you buying PAR38 bulbs? The only ones I've found are like 3,000k...

11-07-2011 12:42 AM

DogFish

Quote:

Originally Posted by dbosman@msu.edu

Please let us know, with pictures, how your two pendants work out.

Trust when this is finally up, my pic posts will be more boring than Uncle Elmo & Aunt Silvia's Caribbean Cruse pics.

1st I need to do some wiring, install a switch box, dimmer and put a box in the ceiling. I think I'll put in mechanical timer inline near the breaker box too.
That ought to keep me busy for a few days.

11-06-2011 08:56 PM

DogFish

Quote:

Originally Posted by WingoAgency

Because of the coverage, I think you will need 2 eventually and you can adjust the height when needed. A sign of too much light is algae growth faster than your plants

Thanks for the IKEA link.

I'm thinking I'll get the Dimmable bulb that will allow me to fine tune once I get my height close.

11-06-2011 08:51 PM

dbosman@msu.edu

Quote:

Originally Posted by DogFish

I did look at that and while I do appreciated the help, I do not understand chart chart at all.
I simply would liked to hang two PAR38 6500K bulbs from pendants above my rimless 40gal tank 37x15x18 and I just need to know how high.

Go for it. Hang them temporarily and raise them until the tank is lit the way you want it to be. That might be lighting most of the bottom or lighting all of it with some spill though the glass unto the floor.
They make really nice cichlid tank lighting.

Quote:

I'm sure from an enters standpoint all this is great info. But, I think a lot of it is lost on most of the readers.

Yes, but if you read enough of the posts, long enough, the info starts to make sense. After a while you'll be one of the gurus posting info.

Please let us know, with pictures, how your two pendants work out.

11-06-2011 07:59 PM

Naekuh

Quote:

Originally Posted by el_heb

and i really want the shimmer effect LOL. But i havent found anything of LEDs and plants.

I can't upload a picture from my iphone. Once i have access to a pc i'll post one

The hard part is, constant current vs constant voltage... I am playing with constant voltage... i want to play with constant current after i finished my stress tests on the 10W.

Do a little studing... red filled my thread with a bunch of info on LED's.

But an array is not hard to make... and the LED's are fairly cheap if you get them from hong kong.

The hardest part will be trying to get your heat sink array to look nice.

But u can see here, its not hard.. very simple:

My take...

10W LED's are nice... they are super bright... however at the same time they are super HOT.
How hot? they will burn out in 5-7 seconds unless u have a heat sink attached.

Not only that they will turn a stock intel cpu heat sink HOT if u dont have an active fan in 15 min.

3W LED's are nice... i havent fully gotten a chance to play with cree's tho on a constant current driver.
12V-10W LED's wont last long especially the 10W versions (1yr if your lucky), because they draw more then 900mA on 12V = 10.8W!!! which is bascially overboosting it.
But they costed me 4 dollars each, cover roughly 2 sqr ft with intensive light.... and being able to hotswap with those disconnects wont leave me crying when one does burn out.

20W, 50W, and 100W... man.... im scared on the heat output alone on a 10W's.. id hate to imagine the 50, and the 100W.

The tank is only 15 deep and will house low light plants. If I go this route I'll use a track light pendant to mount the light so height adjustment or even adding a 2nd pendant is a non issue.

11-06-2011 01:36 AM

WingoAgency

Quote:

Originally Posted by DogFish

I did look at that and while I do appreciated the help, I do not understand chart chart at all.

I simply would liked to hang two PAR38 6500K bulbs from pendants above my rimless 40gal tank 37x15x18 and I just need to know how high.

I'm sure from an enters standpoint all this is great info. But, I think a lot of it is lost on most of the readers.

Do you know how much PAR you need or want? Or, at least do you what light demand plants you want? The first chart in this sticky shows you the PAR value and their corresponding labels of "High Light", "Medium Light" and "Low Light". Once you define that(the type of plants you want to keep), then someone can chime how much PAR you will need with or without CO2. Before that is defined, I cannot assume what you want.

I can help you understand my chart in post #12. The light is set above the center of the circle, the first value that reads 245 in black means PAR value when the light is 18" from the bottom of the tank(i.e your substrate surface in your case). The value 89 in orange is the PAR value when the light is set at 30" above the center. When you move along the arrow where it says 9", that the distance from the center of the tank where the light is hang. So 9" from the center of your tank horizontally will give you PAR of 49 when the light is set at 30" above the center of the tank.

In conclusion, if you set 2 PAR 38 15x1W LED with 60 degree lens at height of 30" from the surface of your substrate it is still consider high light range of planted tank and you should use CO2.

11-05-2011 10:53 PM

HypnoticAquatic

ive been lookin at getting a new led one that ive liked is a plug an play with blue an white looks good from seeing it set up. its made by sunshine systems you could do a 90w raised up or two 32w panel. ive got a 90w thats just red/blue works great but would rather have a white/blue as its much much easyer on your eyes! it has more output than i need on my 40b *well more light than i can use with proper co2 levels an fauna surviving* my lfs has the 90w about 12"+ an its got perfect coverage for me on a 40b

11-05-2011 10:29 PM

DogFish

Quote:

Originally Posted by WingoAgency

Please check post #12, you will find a chart of 6,700K PAR38 bulb with high reference. However, all values are in PAR not lumens because lumen is a unit for human eyes not grow light.

I did look at that and while I do appreciated the help, I do not understand chart chart at all.

I simply would liked to hang two PAR38 6500K bulbs from pendants above my rimless 40gal tank 37x15x18 and I just need to know how high.

I'm sure from an enters standpoint all this is great info. But, I think a lot of it is lost on most of the readers.

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